The method for measuring the direction of patterns of mutually linear and parallel elements comprises performing, at least three times in succession, the following series of steps: – defining a portion of an image comprising the patterns, – applying at least one filter to the portion of the image, – determining a value of a parameter of the filtered portion, constituting an estimate of an alignment between the different patterns, and – recording the determined value and subsequently comparing the recorded values and determining a maximum value of the parameter.